Photoshop Tutorial

Creating the Sky Logo

In this tutorial, I will be explaining a very simple and straightforward way of creating Sky's latest logo. We will be using layer styles and adjustment layers to achieve a transparent glass effect, which will come in handy for many other graphics too.

I used Adobe Photoshop CS3 to create the outcome to this tutorial, but certainly earlier versions of the program will also be entirely suitable. This tutorial requires no advanced knowledge of Photoshop, and should be easy for everyone to follow.

The outcome of the tutorial is shown below:

If the Sky Logo isn’t what you are looking for have a look in the Sidebar or follow this Photoshop Logo Tutorial link for some more logo tutorials

Firstly, you will need to download the font that is used to create the sky logo. You can find it at this link here: http://www.dafont.com/sky-logos.font
(Update: Looks like the font isn't there any more. I'll try and find out a new location for it.)
(Update: link for font Thanks to Kronos See comments below)
Once you have installed the different TrueType font files, they should automatically load up for use in Photoshop. If not, restart Photoshop and try again.

Step Two:

Create a new document with a white background at a size measuring 500 x 300 pixels. Select the ‘Horizontal Type Tool’ and using the ‘Sky TV Channel Logos’ font, type the number ‘8’ with a size of 400pt into your text box using black as your colour. Make sure that ‘Smooth’ is selected in the drop down anti-aliasing menu.

You should now have something that looks like this:

Step Three:

This is where the fun begins! Using only layer styles, we can achieve an awesome transparent glass effect. If you are using the same sized text as me, these settings will be perfect. Otherwise, you may have to alter them slightly depending on your text size, but they fundamentally remain the same.

Open up the ‘Layer Styles’ menu by clicking on the small ‘fx’ icon at the bottom of the layers palette, or alternatively, double click on your layer in the palette. The first style we will be adding is a ‘Bevel and Emboss’. Make sure that the settings have been changed to match those shown in the screenshot below:

Depth: 225%

Size: 4px

Use Global Light: Unchecked

Altitude: 65 degrees

Glass Contour: Custom

You will also need to add a ‘Contour’ to the ‘Bevel and Emboss’ setting, so check the box underneath in the Layer Styles menu, and select this to go to the menu. Simply select the first option in the drop down menu with the diagonal sloping line, like the one shown below:

You should now have something that looks similar to the image below. It looks awful now, but it makes all the difference for later!

Step Four:

Keep the ‘Layer Styles’ menu open, as we will now be adding a colour overlay. Simply select this in the menu, and add a white overlay like that shown in the screenshot below:

Also, we will be adding a ‘Satin’ to the image, so select that option in the ‘Layer Styles’ menu and alter the settings to those shown below:

Opacity: 20%

Distance: 14px

Size: 21px

That’s all the layer styling you need! Your image should now look like this:

Step Five:

The final step is to add the blue tint to the text. We will be doing this through the use of an adjustment layer, which are amazingly handy layers which can be used to change a number of different things such as colour, tone and contrast.

Go to the bottom of the layers palette again, and click on the small circle icon, which is filled in half black and half white. A small menu should then appear, where you should select the ‘Colour Balance’ option. It should open up another menu with different ‘slider’ options. Simply follow the screenshots below to get the correct settings.

Cyan/Red: -40

Magenta/Green: 0

Yellow/Blue: +34

Cyan/Red: -4

Magenta/Green: 0

Yellow/Blue: +16

Cyan/Red: -10

Magenta/Green: 0

Yellow/Blue: +7

Now you are finished! Here is your final outcome:

You may want to expand on this technique through sharpening, experimenting with different colours, or adding more distinct highlights and shadows. Have fun!

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…More Sky Logo…

Just in case the tutorial wasn’t enough, here is some more Sky Logo fun and facts for you.

This Sky Logo Mix plays with the background music from the original Sky Channel from 1984